Exiled Putin critic found dead in DC neighborhood

Russian exile and prominent Putin critic Dan Rapoport was found dead outside his apartment building in Washington, D.C., on Sunday evening, authorities said.

Police discovered Rapoport on the sidewalk outside the 2400 M Street Northwest apartment complex, according to the New York Post. He was 52 years old.

Authorities said they found his body after responding to a call about a "jumper," referring to someone who intends to commit suicide by leaping from a tall building. On Rapoport's corpse, police found $2,600 in cash, a damaged cellphone, and a cracked headphone, per the Post. They do not suspect foul play.

The dissident investment banker fled Russia in 2012 after backing dissident Alexei Navalny. He later married his second wife Alena, a Ukrainian native, and became a stalwart opponent of the country's annexation by the Moscow regime.

Alena vehemently denounced speculation that her husband had committed suicide.

While police say they have no reason to suspect foul play so far, the fates of other prominent Putin critics who have fled abroad may lead some to speculate that his death was arranged in some manner.

Navalny, for his part, found himself in solitary confinement after returning to Russia in the wake of an apparently botched poisoning attempt involving the Novichok nerve agent, a frequent tool in Russian political assassinations. The agent first gained notoriety in the failed 2018 assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal, a Russian intelligence officer who worked as a double agent for the UK.